Author: a.rahmani

Last Wednesday, I had the opportunity to attend the Starr Career Development Center workshop, Creating Your Own Major: The Ad-Hoc. The workshop was led by the Arts and Sciences Coordinator of the Starr Career Development Center, Sandra Kupprat. She started the workshop by handing out packets about the ad-hoc, which is basically combining multiple majors into one single major of your creation. Something important to note is that the ad-hoc major is only available for the Weissman School of Arts and Science, and not available within the Zicklin School of Business or the School of Public Affairs.

If you want to create an ad-hoc major, you would have to follow these rules: First, you need a minimum of thirty credits, with at least twenty-four of those credits being liberal arts credits. Then, your ad-hoc major must contain courses from two different Weissman departments, with a minimum of three courses from each department. Furthermore it can’t contain more than three non-liberal arts courses. And finally, your ad-hoc major must be approved at least one semester prior to graduation, which means you can create an ad-hoc major as late as your senior year if you please.

To get your ad-hoc major approved, you would need to write a 300 word essay about the major, explaining how the selected courses combine to form something that’s not available through existing majors, and how it supports your academic goals. After writing the essay, your ad-hoc major must be reviewed and approved by Sandra Kupprat, faculty advisors from two of the Weissman departments, and the office of the associate dean. Also, you would need to attend the Ad-Hoc Workshop, so if I ever want to create an ad-hoc major, I already have that done!

To find what ad-hoc major best suits you, you can use a career finder test found on Star Search. Career assessment tests include the Myers-Briggs Typology Indicator and the Strong Interest Inventory. Overall, this workshop was very helpful as someone who isn’t 100% sure on what his ultimate major will be, so maybe in the future I’ll look into the ad-hoc major some more.

ps – I thought the signature space was for Student Life so I had to write a second one. oops!

An excerpt from Matthew McConaughey’s acceptance speech for Best Actor at the 2014 Oscars.

There’s a few things, about three things to my count, that I need each day. One I need something to look up to, another something to look forward to, and another is someone to chase. Now first off I want to thank God, because that’s who I look up to. To my family, that’s who and what I look forward to.

And to my hero, that’s who I chase. Now, when I was 15 years old, I had a very important person in my life come to me and say, “Who is your hero?” And I said I don’t know, I gotta think about that, give me a couple of weeks. I come back two weeks later, this person comes up and says “Who’s your hero?” And so I thought about it and I said you know who it is, it’s me in 10 years.

So I turn 25, 10 years later that same person comes to me and goes “so are you a hero?” And I was like, not even close. No, no, no. She said “Why?” I said because my hero is me at 35. So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life, my hero is always 10 years away. I’m never going to beat my hero. I’m not going to obtain that, I know I’m not. And that’s just fine with me because that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.

So, to any of us, whatever those things are, whatever that is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to, and whoever it is we are chasing, to that I say amen. To that I say alright, alright, alright. And to that I say just keep living. Thank you.

Before going to college, I attended a Jewish school my entire life since kindergarten. After finishing high school, most students have the choice between two things: spending a year in Israel before ultimately attending college, or going straight to college. Although what seems like my entire graduating class took the former option, I obviously went with the latter.

Although I came into college alone, I still was able to enter knowing some people, and that’s because my brother who is two years older than I am has some friends who go to Baruch too. Through them, I was introduced to the club, Hillel @ Baruch, which is a Jewish organization where any Jews that go to Baruch College can visit. Hillel @ Baruch offers many Jewish services, from the availability of Tefillin (phylacteries), a set of small black leather boxes with scrolls of Jewish scripture inside them which Jews use to pray every morning, for those who did not get the chance to do before coming to school – to a daily prayer service where a group of Jews who attend the club will be able to pray together. Additionally, every Tuesday and Thursday, they hold events, such as their first “Welcome Back” event back in August to a class called “Hebrew in Harmony.” Additionally, every Wednesday they have a learning event called “Pizza and Parsha,” which, exactly as the name implies, participants sit around discussing the parsha (weekly Torah portion) of the week, and later on Wednesdays there is another class where a rabbi comes in and gives a speech about something relating to Judaism. During these events, they provide kosher food, making it the only place on campus I’m able to trust when it comes to food as I follow kosher dietary restrictions. Additionally, sometimes at these events, they hold raffles for those who like their Facebook page. I don’t think I’ve ever won anything in my life before but because of Hillel @ Baruch I have already won two things from the events (those being a portable charger and a Starbucks gift card, and I don’t even drink coffee)! I do try to attend as many of these events as I can, although there is a roadblock in the way on Tuesdays because our FRO class is held during club hours.

Hillel @ Baruch is a great club on campus and I would recommend it to any Jewish students who don’t know about it yet.

A couple of weeks ago, my family had the opportunity to make a visit to the Museum of Modern Art. Unfortunately I was busy, so I didn’t get the chance to go with them. However, when I found out I could attend an exhibition offered at a New York City museum for my first-year seminar blog post, I realized that gave me the perfect chance to go the Museum of Modern Art and see what I missed. On Wednesday, September 6, after finishing my two morning classes of the day at school, I took the 6 train to the 51 Street subway station, and walked a couple of blocks to the Museum of Modern Art.

When I got to the Museum of Modern Art, I first had to wait like fifteen minutes on a really long line just to check in my bag. That was definitely not the highlight of my day. Anyways, after I was finished checking in my bag, I got to go upstairs and explore the museum. Naturally, because the museum was very big with a lot of floors, there was a lot of art I was able to see. My favorite piece of art would have to have been the sculpture “Canyon,” which was located in the Robert Rauschenberg exhibit. Rauschenberg’s “Canyon” was a sculpture of a stuffed eagle sticking out of a canvas. I thought it looked cool and Rauschenberg did a good job with it. Another piece I liked, which I can’t quite remember the name of, was one where two artists made their own separate pieces of art, and just combined them together to form one thing. I think that shows unity among people which I think is a great thing. My visit to the Museum of Modern Art was very nice, and I definitely won’t pass up the chance to go the next time I’m asked.